Deliveroo on strike

If you live in an area that has Deliveroo, you may have been enjoying food from your local restaurant without having to get dressed and leave the house.

Very nice.

However, if you're in London, you'll have a problem this week, as Deliveroo drivers have gone on strike over a pay row.

So what's this about exactly? Well, in May, Deliveroo announced a new contract, which they were trialling with workers. According to drivers, this new trial contract meant they were actually getting paid paid less than the minimum wage for people over the age of 25.

Drivers used to get £7 per hour with a £1 commission for delivery. The new pay scheme just gives £3.75 per delivery, and it kicks off next week.

Deliveroo say that this new contract gives staff more flexibility, but of course, that's an argument that is often used by companies (notably with zero hour contracts) that are not exactly doing things in the interest of their own workforce.

A Deliveroo spokesperson said: "We have just started trialling a new '£3.75 per delivery' model in London this week. After feedback from our rider surveys, we learnt that the most important thing to our riders about the job was flexibility."

"We've designed this trial to enhance flexibility, allowing riders to work whenever they want by logging on-and-off as desired. Rider feedback is key to everything we do and we've built-in a process throughout the trial to ensure continuous communication and drop-in information sessions are available to all riders."

"The 2.2km size of each delivery zone has been designed with delivery distance and time in mind. Following extensive testing, this zone size was found to be the optimum size for ensuring that riders can complete 2-3 orders an hour safely and with plenty of time, while still receiving fees of more than £10 per hour across the lunch and dinner times our riders work."

"We've developed this trial to better reflect the way that riders work with us. Along with this increased flexibility, we've seen average hourly fees for riders in previous trials rise to over 2.1 times the previous payment model at our busiest times. We are keen to hear more about the London riders' concerns. "